Interlaced
by Emored
Summary: No one expected the veritable goddess Krista Lenz to end up with Ymir. Curled up against her side one evening, Krista thinks back on how they fell in love. [modern au, xpost from ao3, originally a secret santa gift.]


If you were to ask Krista Lenz when she realized she was in love with Ymir, she wouldn't be able to give you an answer. It's not that she's ashamed of their relationship (quite the contrary, actually) or unsure of her feelings; she just can't pinpoint, in all the days and weeks and months and years, when that moment of realization hit, or even if there was one. It had been a slow, blurred progression from acquaintances to friends to lovers and she wouldn't have had it happen any other way. As she curls up against Ymir's side on the couch on a quiet summer's evening, Krista marvels at how well they fit together despite how different they thought each other at first.

She can say with certainty that it wasn't love at first sight, seeing as that first sight had taken place back in middle school when Krista and a cafeteria full of raucous students watched as a kicking, shouting Ymir had to be dragged away from some eighth grader who'd made the mistake of blatantly insulting her. The incident had been the talk of the school for weeks, and when Ymir returned after her two-week suspension everyone gave her a wide berth in the halls and a sort of half-admiring, half-terrified sense of respect. The notoriety suited Ymir just fine. Krista had wanted nothing to do with her. And she didn't have to deal with her, save for a particularly awkward history report they'd been paired up for. Krista ended up doing most of the work.

Despite how outspoken and brash she could be, no one in school ever knew much about Ymir and her family, or if she even had one. She brushed off questions about where she lived and how she got to school. She even managed to keep every single grade of hers a secret, threatening anyone who tried to spare a glance at her papers. Krista couldn't help wondering, on occasion, what Ymir's parents were like. As they progressed through middle school and began high school, those brief occasions started happening more and more often and became less and less brief. There was so much about Ymir that Krista became insatiably curious about, but she had no idea how to approach her. They'd never traded more than a few sentences and the last time they did Ymir had called her a future trophy wife. Krista hadn't known what it meant, but she assumed it was an insult considering the tone with which it was said. So, she resigned herself to endless wondering. She couldn't see any possible way that the two of them could get close enough to the point of Ymir being comfortable answering her questions. Even with the distraction of other acquaintances and the more-than-occasional suitor, traitorous thoughts about Ymir would always be floating in the back of her mind.

The summer before junior year, Krista managed to get a job at an ice cream parlor. The little shop was almost always busy and she was by far the most popular employee. She was guaranteed to see at least five of her classmates on any given day and to her surprise Ymir was almost always one of them. She wasn't sure how Ymir was spending her summer, but she must've been doing some kind of hard labor in the sun because by mid July she was sporting a deep tan, defined arm and back muscles, and a few scars. Krista decided that it suited her and if she was being honest with herself, found Ymir's changing appearance to be just a little bit attractive. Certainly more appealing than Reiner Braun, a particularly determined admirer, who was sweet enough but just not her type. (Besides, she was almost certain that he attempted flirting with her to cover up a less than platonic relationship with his remarkably tall best friend. At least that was the rumor.) Krista would always greet Ymir with a smile and a polite little inquiry into how her day was going, to which Ymir would respond with one word answers. At first. As the days dragged on, she slowly but surely began to open up a bit more about herself, talking about the job she'd landed in a junkyard on the outskirts of the city, her plans to build herself a car from spare parts, and her thoughts on some of the other customers. Ymir could be pretty harsh, but Krista was amused nonetheless. It was nice having someone she could hold a conversation with during her seven hour shifts. By the time August rolled around she considered Ymir to be a friend. And apparently Ymir considered her one as well, although there had been that one instance when she'd told Krista that she'd have her as a wife after they graduated. She'd brushed it off as a joke, but Krista couldn't help feeling just a little bit flustered thinking about being married to Ymir.

On the first day of school that September Krista had spent her time before the first bell looking for Ymir, but to no avail. She asked around to find out if anyone had seen her, but no one knew anything and a number of people were surprised that she cared about finding her. Sitting in class that day, it was nearly impossible to focus on the generic first day routine each teacher had to go through. Ymir had never been very serious about school, but she showed up nonetheless and hardly ever got sick. Krista chided herself for worrying so much about something that was probably nothing, but she found that she couldn't help it. Seeing Ymir walking down the halls the next day came as a huge relief and she ended up giving her a tight hug in greeting. And maybe it had just been her imagination, but she could've sworn that Ymir had blushed. Just a little. Ymir never did give an excuse for her absence, but Krista didn't mind. She was just happy to see her.

The budding relationship that had formed over the summer grew much stronger that year. The two of them ended up having three classes and lunch together, so there were plenty of opportunities for them to talk and spend time with each other. Their closeness came as a shock to some people, but neither of them payed anyone else any heed. Ymir was still bossy and cynical as ever, but she was more loyal than anyone Krista had ever met and proved to be incredibly reliable. The few people Ymir trusted, it seemed, could count on her for practically anything. They spent many a late night studying and talking up in Krista's bedroom- granted, Krista did most of the studying and Ymir most of the talking, but it was still nice (and helped encourage Ymir to put more time into her schoolwork). Neither of them ended up going to any school events; Krista had had no lack of prospective dates for the spring ball, but she had politely declined with the excuse of not being a fan of formal events. On that night, while most of their classmates were getting dolled up and heading to the school in rented limousines, she and Ymir wandered around the city together and ended up at a park, laying in the grass while Krista pointed out different constellations. She wasn't sure of herself the next morning, but she vaguely remembered holding hands with Ymir when they had walked home. It was a bit too embarassing to ask about.

It felt like Krista spent practically every waking minute with Ymir the following summer. It became routine to meet up with Ymir at the street corner with the broken stop sign and find somewhere else in the city they had yet to explore. On days Krista had her long shift at the ice cream parlor, Ymir would hang around and end up buying a good thirty dollars worth of ice cream over the course of seven hours for the sake of not being kicked out by the owner. When Ymir had a day shift at the junk yard, however, she insisted that Krista stay at home or do something other than stop by because "It's no place for a goddess, you know?" Beyond that, she'd learned plenty about Ymir and her personality, but Krista still didn't know a thing about her family. Hell, she didn't even know where Ymir lived because she always said that it didn't matter. She worried that Ymir might be living with abusive parents and was always wary whenever she spotted a new scar on her friend. That desire to know more was back, but it was due to concern rather than innocent curiosity this time. Krista couldn't help feeling guilty, though, for wanting Ymir to open up while still keeping secrets of her own. Talking about her parents was more than a little difficult for her, but she decided to swallow her fears one evening when she and Ymir were alone sitting idly on two swings in the park. After a somewhat clumsy segueway, she ended up spilling out the story of how she'd been born out of wedlock, how her mother had wanted nothing to do with her and said she regretted giving birth to her, how the extent of her interactions with her father were nothing more than a brief, annual visit around Christmastime. She hadn't even realized she'd started crying until Ymir stood up, pulled her into a tight hug and told her that her parents weren't worth her tears. They stayed like that for a while until Krista asked if Ymir could walk her home.

By the time senior year rolled around, Krista and Ymir were each comfortable referring to the other as their closest friend and it was generally expected that if one was around, the other wouldn't be far behind. They were close enough for their to be rumors of something romantic going on between the two of them; Krista would give flustered denials to anyone who asked her while Ymir would sling her arm around Krista and grin. She'd brush it off as just a means of getting rid of people, but Krista couldn't help thinking that Ymir liked the idea of people believing they were together. She didn't know how to feel about it. Of course she cared about Ymir, and she'd be lying if she said she didn't find her at least somewhat attractive, but she couldn't bring herself to admit that she just might want to kiss her. Even thinking about it made her heart race and her face heat up. Krista thought that maybe if she just ignored it all then it'd go away, but it seemed like Ymir was acting more and more like a girlfriend rather than just a friend every time they were together. Denying the rumors grew difficult as the year went on and Krista wondered if it was worth it to even try anymore, seeing as almost everyone but her was on board with she and Ymir being a couple. She couldn't bring herself to actually say something about it to Ymir, so rather than ask she decided to one day bid Ymir goodnight with a kiss on the cheek. Nothing more, just that and a little wave before hurrying off back home. She hadn't looked back, but Ymir would later confess that she'd stood there for a solid five minutes touching her cheek before letting out a cheer and heading home herself. The next day they walked to school holding hands and, well, that was that. Nothing much about their relationship really changed when they went from friends to girlfriends outside of the addition of kisses and handholding and Krista's relief over finally having worked out her feelings. Despite the previously circulating rumors, the two of them didn't garner much attention from anyone who hadn't had their hopes dashed when Krista finally started dating someone (which, to be fair, was a sizable group of people, but still not enough to cause problems).

As Krista scoots into Ymir's lap and rests her head on her shoulder, she glances at the glimmering ring on her finger and smiles to herself. Ymir's proposal had been so blunt; she'd cornered Krista after graduation, pulled a ring out of her pocket and babbled about how she needed to get a ring on a goddess like her before she went off to college because she didn't want some creep hanging around her woman thinking he had a shot with her. Krista had responded by tackling her to the ground in a tight hug, repeating "yes" over and over and over again. They hadn't had an actual wedding until Krista finished her degree, but they carried on like a married couple nevertheless. Ymir worked two jobs while Krista studied hard in school and money was tight, but they were both determined to make a good life for each other. Which, looking at the cozy little house they share, Krista thinks they did.

an: minor edit from the original took out an awkward section of paragraph that kinda messed with the flow of things, but nothing else has changed. and again, just so no one flips out on me, this was originally posted on archive of our own under the account name londy. it's me over there, promise.


End file.
